NASA is planning two alternative reviews of an airborne observatory amid conflicting congressional views on whether the program will be eligible for the next senior review of astrophysics missions. SpaceNews.com

One thing a highball estimate does accomplish is “shift the debate to how expensive this is going to be." SpaceNews.com

NOAA awarded more than $8 million in contracts this week to three companies in the second round of a commercial satellite weather data pilot program. SpaceNews.com

European launch provider Arianespace signed a contract with the Korean Aerospace Research Institute for a Vega C mission Sept. 20, growing the rocket’s backlog to five as its debut launch nears. SpaceNews.com

Whoever signs up for one of two certification flights for the Omega rocket, will get a ride “at a reduced rate." SpaceNews.com

"It doesn't necessarily mean buying a company. It could be buying a product line. It could be buying a portion of a business that fits with us. We want to make sure that it's strategic." SpaceNews.com

Bezos: At a time of increasing global competition, “You have to be able to go to space more frequently, with less lead time." SpaceNews.com

Kleos Space, a company developing a constellation of satellites for radiofrequency geolocation work, will launch its first satellites in 2019 with Rocket Lab under a deal announced Sept. 19. SpaceNews.com

A Georgia county seeking to develop a spaceport has attracted a small launch vehicle company to set up operations and, hopefully, launch from there. SpaceNews.com

Shanahan on space reorganization: “We’re going to find the best way. There will be some hammering and arm wrestling. " SpaceNews.com

Gen. Jay Raymond: “There’s an explosion of things happening in the commercial industry. We want to capitalize on that." SpaceNews.com

Boeing and SpaceX, who have been struggling to meet safety thresholds established by NASA for commercial crew vehicles, now believe their vehicles can meet those requirements as they prepare for test flights scheduled in the next several months. SpaceNews.com

Orbital Insight, a Silicon Valley geospatial analytics company, announced the purchase Sept. 18 of FeatureX, a Boston-based artificial intelligence firm specializing in computer vision for satellite imagery. The terms of the purchase were not disclosed. SpaceNews.com

Wilson suggested her proposal is only the opening salvo. “I expect there will be a lot of discussion about how to implement the president’s vision.” SpaceNews.com

Melanie Stricklan, Slingshot Aerospace: “We see a big need for SSA solutions, not just in the military but also in academia and in satellite owners and operators." SpaceNews.com

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson’s Space Force proposal dropped on the first day of the Air Force Association’s Air Space Cyber symposium, and it took the community by storm. SpaceNews.com

The Air Force’s advocacy group, the Air Force Association, is taking off the gloves and pointedly voicing opposition to separating space out of the Air Force. SpaceNews.com

Three months after its inaugural meeting, the advisory group supporting the National Space Council is working to organize itself and identify topics for study while preparing for its next full meeting. SpaceNews.com

AFA: "Standing up a separate space bureaucracy amplifies the problem by driving more money to a headquarters function, not space operations. " SpaceNews.com

SpaceX announced Sept. 17 that a Japanese billionaire will be paying an undisclosed but significant sum to buy a flight of the company’s next-generation rocket for a flight around the moon carrying a group of artists. SpaceNews.com

ESA's star mapping mission, Gaia, has shown our Milky Way galaxy is still enduring the effects of a near collision that set millions of stars moving like ripples on a pond.

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has started a new mission to shed light on the evolution of the earliest galaxies in the Universe. The BUFFALO survey will observe six massive galaxy clusters and their surroundings. The first observations show the galaxy cluster Abell 370 and a host of magnified, gravitationally lensed galaxies around it.

The long-lived international Cassini mission has revealed a surprising feature emerging at Saturn's northern pole as it nears summertime: a warming, high-altitude vortex with a hexagonal shape, akin to the famous hexagon seen deeper down in Saturn's clouds. This suggests that the lower-altitude hexagon may influence what happens up above, and that it could be a towering structure spanning hundreds of kilometres in height.

The two science orbiters of the joint ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission are connected in their launch configuration and the European science orbiter and transport module have been given the go-ahead to be loaded with propellants.

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have taken a series of spectacular images featuring the fluttering auroras at the north pole of Saturn. The observations were taken in ultraviolet light and the resulting images provide astronomers with the most comprehensive picture so far of Saturn's northern aurora.

Proposals are solicited for observations with XMM-Newton in response to the eighteenth Announcement of Opportunity, AO-18, issued 21 August 2018. This AO covers the period May 2019 to April 2020 and is open to proposers from all over the world.

The ESA Director of Science solicits proposals from the scientific community in ESA Member States for a Fast (F) mission to be launched in the 2026-2028 timeframe.